PHOTOS: An ocean of plastic

A boy swims as he collects recyclable plastic bottles drifting with garbage along the coast of Manila Bay at the slum area in the Baseco Compound in metro Manila, Philippines. (Photo: Romeo Ranoco/Reuters)

Globally, public awareness is growing about the harm being done by plastic, which hurts marine life and instead of biodegrading breaks down into ubiquitous micro-plastics. According to science writer Mike Berners-Lee, of the 9 billion tons of plastic ever produced, 5.4 billion has been dumped onto land or into the sea — enough to shrink-wrap the entire planet. (Reuters)

Rubbish, most of which is plastics, is seen along a shoreline in Jakarta, Indonesia. (Photo: Willy Kurniawan/Reuters)

Government workers gather plastic and other debris for collection as an excavator removes the garbage from the Sekretaris River in Jakarta, Indonesia. (Photo: Darren Whiteside/Reuters)

Plastic waste pile and debris are seen up near the beach in Panama City, as Panama becomes the first country in Central America to ban all single-use plastic bags, in Panama. (Photo: Erick Marciscano/Reuters)

A woman is pictured at a fishermen port on the outskirts of Dakar, Senegal. (Photo: Zohra Bensemra/Reuters)

A man collects plastic goods in a river littered with garbage in Jakarta. (Photo: Supri Supri/Reuters)

A girls collects items thrown in as offerings by devotees in the waters of the Yamuna river on the last day of the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in New Delhi. (Photo: Ahmad Masood/Reuters)

Plastic and general waste is seen at the Veracruz port on the outskirts of Panama City. (Photo: Carlos Jasso/Reuters)

A mother and her child gather firewood and other plastic recyclable materials that were washed up along the shores of Manila Bay at the slum area in Baseco compound, metro Manila. (Photo: Romeo Ranoco/Reuters)

Garbage is seen in front of a floodgate at a canal in Bangkok, Thailand. (Photo: Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)